The Charlotte Bobcats are a professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team is part of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association. The Bobcats were established in 2004 as an expansion team, two seasons after Charlotte's previous NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets, relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana and became the New Orleans Hornets. The Bobcats play their home games at Time Warner Cable Arena in uptown Charlotte. Charlotte's NBA Development League team is the Sioux Falls Skyforce (the affiliation is shared with the Minnesota Timberwolves). The Bobcats were also the brother team of the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA before the Sting folded on January 3, 2007. The NBA granted Charlotte an expansion franchise in 2003. The franchise narrowed the choice for the team’s nickname to three finalists. The Bobcats, Dragons, and Flight are chosen out of approximately 1,250 suggestions submitted to the team and the Charlotte Regional Sports Commission. During the summer of 2003, at a street festival that attracted an overflow crowd of 7,000 fans, the Charlotte NBA expansion franchise unveils Bobcats as the team nickname.
